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International Dance Day 2018

29th April, 17h00 / Gran Teatro Alicia Alonso / Havana, Cuba

Performances:Twelve - Acosta Danza

Coil - Danza Contemporanea de CubaElla y él… siempre - Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba

Dahomeñó - Folklorico Nacional de CubaDon Quijote (suite) - Ballet Nacional de Cuba

AfricaSalia SANOU, Burkina Faso

Arab countriesGeorgette GEBARA, Lebanon

EuropeOhad NAHARIN, Israel

With the presence of:

Asia PacificWilly TSAO, Hong Kong, China

The AmericasMarianela BOAN, Cuba

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Welcome to the International Dance Day Celebration 2018 by Director General and President of ITI

Dear message authors, ladies and gentlemen,

ITI is extremely glad and thankful that it is possible

to celebrate that the main International Dance

Day celebration here and now. Because with this

event, ITI can create a bridge between the artists

and people of Cuba to the artists and people all

over the world.

The main reasons why the International Theatre

Institute ITI was created by UNESCO in 1948

was to help UNESCO to build a bridge between

performing artists and people all over the world.

The key words are mutual understanding and

peace. The symbol of the bridge was wisely

chosen: If you observe the traffic on a bridge you

will be aware that the bridge is always a two-

way path. On our bridge, ideas, performances,

humanistic and educational efforts always

can travel at all time both ways. This concept

of building bridges is not based on the idea

of hegemony. It is founded on the respect for

the artists and the people on both sides of the

bridge. When in the past 70 years ITI has followed

this concept, it resulted in instances the members

of ITI and the artists involved in it were proud of.

To intensify our work and increase the awareness

for the performing arts, ITI has created two World

Theatre Day and International Dance Day.

In the past, for both days ITI selected one

important person to write a message. For this

year it was decided that there will be five message

authors, one for each of the five UNESCO regions.

For Dance Day ITI asked five extraordinary artists

and educators to share their thoughts with the

Welcome to the International Dance Day

Celebration 2018

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Content

Welcome to the International Dance Day Celebration 2018

Message from the Director General of UNESCO

Welcome Address by the President of the Cuban Centre of ITI

Welcome Address by the President of the National Council of Performing Arts in Cuba

Message for International Dance Day Gala by Alicia Alonso

UNESCO and ITI

International Theatre Institute ITI

International Dance Committee IDC of ITI

International Dance Day

World Dance Alliance

Message Authors

Message Authors 2018

Salia SANOU, Burkina Faso

Message International Dance Day 2018 by Salia SANOU

Georgette GEBARA, Lebanon

Message International Dance Day 2018 by Georgette GEBARA

Willy TSAO, Hong Kong, China

Message International Dance Day 2018 by Willy TSAO

Ohad NAHARIN, Israel

Message International Dance Day 2018 by Ohad NAHARIN

Marianela BOAN, Cuba

Message International Dance Day 2018 by Marianela BOAN

Performances

Twelve

Coil

Ella y él… siempre

DAHOMEÑÓ

Don Quixote (Suite)

Beijing Lv Dong Wu Xian Culture & Communication Co.

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5

7

8

9

10/11

12/13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

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International Theatre Institute ITI UNESCO OfficeUNESCO, 1 rue Miollis75732 Paris Cedex 15France

International Theatre Institute ITI ITI Headquarters1332 Xinzha Road, Jing anShanghai, China 200040Tel: +86 21 6236 7033Fax: +86 21 6236 3053info@iti-worldwide.orgwww.iti-worldwide.org

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dancers, choreographers, dance professionals

and amateurs, all over the world. It should show

that there are no boarders for dance and that

artists should be at the vanguard of the people

for creating mutual understanding and peace in

this world.

70 years ago, when ITI was created the peoples

just experienced the atrocities of the worst war

of this earth. The people and the world needed

bridging and healing forces such as UNESCO

and ITI. Today, there are still wars, hidden and

apparent wars, which make the world and people

suffer. For a better world that is what ITI is aiming

for since its beginning and even today, with its

more than 90 Centres all over the world.

From ITI´s viewpoint, people and the world do

not need sanctions but a creative positive result-

oriented dialogue and forces like UNESCO and ITI

that bring hope. It needs everybody to make this

world a better world. You. Me. We all together.

Let´s work on building bridges for the benefit

of everybody, for the respect of each other, for

mutual understanding and peace.

We would like to thank all institutions that made

this event possible: The Ministry of Culture of Cuba,

the Cuban Centre of ITI, the National Commission

of UNESCO, the UNESCO Ambassador in Paris,

the Sponsor SHANG Xuefeng President of Beijing

Lv Dong Wu Xian Culture & Communication

from China, the Executive Council and the

General Secretariat of ITI – and all the individuals

connected with it.

And now let´s celebrate International Dance

Day with the dance productions and some wise

words that have been created for this day.

Muchas gracias

Mohamed Saif Al-Afkham Tobias Biancone

President ITI Director General ITI

Message from the Director General of

UNESCO

UNESCO is pleased to convey its congratulations

to the International Theatre Institute for the

organization of this latest edition of International

Dance Day. Established in 1948 by the first

Director-General of UNESCO, the Institute is now

the world‘s largest performing arts organization,

with more than ninety Centres on every

continent. Its vocation is to put the arts at the

service of intercultural dialogue and peace: it thus

fully resonates with the mandate of UNESCO.

Since 1982, the Institute has celebrated the

International Dance Day every year, and with it,

the values of this ancestral art. They are values of

freedom: freedom of bodies, their movements,

their inclinations. They are also values of sharing

and communion: dance brings together, reunites,

with the same rhythms, around the same

choreographies, arousing common emotions.

They are still values of universality: the language

of dance is that of bodies, which dispenses with

words, which is established beyond particular

languages, social positions, national and political

differences.

Though universal, dance, like all the arts, finds

unique expression in many particular cultural

expressions. For this reason, it is a wonderful

introduction to cultural diversity. Havana is well

aware of this, the host city of this International

Dance Day, which welcomes visitors from all over

the world, attracted by Cuban music and dance.

A sign of this diversity: the messages sent for this

day are by authors from Israel, Burkina Faso, Hong

Kong, Cuba and Lebanon.

Dance is an immemorial art of innumerable

forms, testimony to human creativity and

inventiveness. This is why UNESCO is committed

to its preservation and enhancement. Rare or

Message from the Director General of

UNESCO Audrey Azoulay,

on the occasion of the

International Dance Day

Havana, 29 April 2018

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endangered dances have thus been included in

the Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Examples

include the Isukuti dance of the Isukha and

Idakho communities in western Kenya; the three

kinds of traditional Bali dance in Indonesia; the

music and dance of Yampara culture in Bolivia; or

kopachkata, a community dance in the village of

Dramche in the Republic of Macedonia.

The great American dancer and choreographer

Martha Graham said: „The great dancers are not

great thanks to their technique, but thanks to

their passion“. On this international day, UNESCO

hopes that passion for dance will triumph,

amateurs and professionals, and make this day, in

Havana, city of dance par excellence, and in all the

cities of the world, a day of exceptional art.

Audrey Azoulay

Welcome Address by the President of the Cuban Centre of ITI

It is a great honour for the Cuban Centre of ITI to

be able to organize, on this occasion, in Havana,

Cuba: The Gala Event for the International Dance

Day. For the first time this celebration on a world

scale, so awaited by lovers of dance, is celebrated

among us, which is undoubtedly a great

recognition for choreographers, dancers and

critics of our country, and in turn, of the Americas.

For our Centre, it is a great privilege to receive so

many personalities and so many friends, so that

together, we can celebrate a day like this and send

messages of love for Dance to the world that will

be heard by all. Of course, we would like to thank

those who have collaborated and supported us

to be the scene of this unique celebration.

We would also wish to thank the Cuban

companies, and in general, the world of dance

in Cuba, for the support and willingness to work

so that the Gala and the celebrations associated

with the International Dance Day can be carried

out according to the highest standards.

Dance is an essential part of the culture of this

country, perhaps, together with music, its most

universal expression, therefore, to celebrate

this day here is a cultural fest of the greatest

significance.

Let‘s celebrate the Day of Dance. Let the bodies

speak, let the culture come down to the feet and

touch the land of Cuba and the world.

Carlos Celdrán

President Cuban Centre of ITI

Welcome Address by the President of

the Cuban Centre of ITI

Director-General of NESCO, Audrey Azoulay© UNESCO / Christelle Alix

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Welcome Address by the President of the

National Council of Performing Arts in Cuba

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Dear friends:

Cuba is a country that dances. Our people, a mix-

ture of Africans and Spanish, express themselves

through the movement of men and women’s bo-

dies, endowed with intelligence, full of sensuality

and a love for life.

From early ages, boys and girls with a passion for

dance begin a long journey through the coun-

try’s art schools, learning ballet, modern dance,

folk, and contemporary techniques, which train

them to be highly professional performers, who-

se extraordinary skills are recognised in the most

demanding arenas.

Dance is an expression of the spirituality of our

country. In the globalised context of the 21st

century, it defines us as a nation, and integrates

us with the wider global currents which strive to

defend a world of peace and hope for all the inha-

bitants of the planet.

When asked why he dances, Ramiro Guerra, the

founder of the Cuban modern dance style, res-

ponded:

“To communicate to our age the concerns and

changing ways of living for man, in search of

achieving perfection, both spiritual and material.”

We appreciate the possibility to host the celebra-

tions of International Dance Day in order to show

to the world the fruits of the artistic education

system in Cuba as well as the creativity of our

dancers and choreographers.

On behalf of all Cubans, thank you very much.

Rafel Perez-Malo

Interim President

National Council of the Performing Arts of Cuba

Message for International Dance Day

Gala by Alicia Alonso

I remember a Cuban folk tale, in which two friends

argue and one of them repeats in a resolute way:

„Yes Sir, the Cuban people are a dancing people!“

How much truth that affirmation contains.

Because dance has been, is and will be, for the

Cuban people, a natural and spontaneous

expression that springs from the depths of their

spirit and their bodily reality.

This is why we managed to consolidate a scenic

dance movement that occupies an exceptional

place in our national culture and reaches an

undeniable recognition on a world scale.

This explains the special importance that it has

for us that the International Theatre Institute (ITI),

with the decisive support of UNESCO, has chosen

the Cuban capital this year to celebrate its central

act for the International Dance Day, a celebration

that for years has exalted all those who live and

fight for this expression of art and life.

The meeting that we celebrate today in Havana,

brings together the enthusiasm and creative

impulse of personalities from all over the world,

for the glory of dance, an expression that has its

roots in tradition, expands throughout the ages

and transits through a wide diversity of creative

paths.

We should also add the coincidence of

anniversaries, which this year 2018 brings us to

celebrate the 70th anniversary of the emergence

of ITI, and also the 70th anniversary of the

founding of the National Ballet of Cuba.

May the coincidental celebrations, of profound

significance for all, mark the consolidation and

development of new paths of collaboration, to

the glory of performing arts throughout the

world.

Alicia Alonso

Ambassador of Good Will of UNESCO

World Dance Ambassador

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International Theatre Institute ITI

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UNESCO and ITIUNESCO and ITIIt was due to the dedication and initiative of

Sir Julian Huxley, the first Director General of

UNESCO, that the International Theatre Institute

ITI was created in 1948. In fact, ITI was the very

first NGO to be created by UNESCO.

Since the beginning UNESCO and ITI have worked

together closely, and the two organizations

continue to be strongly connected. The goals of

UNESCO in the fields of science, education and

culture are heralded not only in the ITI Charter

but in the projects and activities of ITI on a local

(national) and global level. An ethical outlook,

based on having respect for one another –

regardless of gender, age, religious belief and

ethnicity – are the guidelines of UNESCO that ITI

follows most ardently.

In 2015, UNESCO and ITI started a joint project

called the ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher

Education in the Performing Arts. Since its

inauguration, different activities involving its

members and cooperating groups have been

undertaken, such as student festivals and the

creation of a global directory performing arts

educational institutions.

For 2021, the first ITI/UNESCO World Performing

Arts Capital is scheduled which follows UNESCO

and ITI’s shared goals and is intended to give

access to the performing arts and its education

to everybody.

ITI is a strong supporter of UNESCO and

appreciates the long-term strong support that

UNESCO has granted to ITI.

International Theatre Institute ITIFounded in 1948 on a UNESCO initiative, the

International Theatre Institute ‘s mission is

to promote peace, cooperation and mutual

understanding through the arts, to encourage

the practice of performing arts around the

world and to strengthen international exchanges

between artists. The ITI has become the world ‘s

largest organization for the performing arts with

about 100 centres and cooperating members

around the world.

Since its inception, one of the major features

of the ITI has been to break down barriers that

seemed insurmountable, by promoting the

rapprochement of cultures and encounters

between artists.

International Dance Day (29 April) and World

Theatre Day (27 March) have both been created

to celebrate the richness and diversity of theatre

and dance.

International Dance Committee IDC of ITIThe International Dance Committee seeks to

develop the study and practice of dance, through

activities such as the patronage of international

festivals, the organization of workshops for young

professionals, and events in connection with

International Dance Day - particularly the release

of the International Message. The International

Theatre Institute and the International Dance

Committee collaborate with the World Dance

Alliance and other dance organizations, both on

national and international levels.

World Dance AllianceThe World Dance Alliance (WDA) is an

independent, non-profit cultural organization. Its

mission is to serve as a global voice for dance and

dance professionals. It encourages the exchange

of ideas and hopes to raise the awareness of

dance in all its forms. WDA has an overarching

global executive that operates through its

regional centres. WDA is the main dance partner

organization for the International Theatre

Institute ITI, and as such closely collaborates with

ITI and its Dance Committee (for instance in the

selection of the message authors for International

Dance Day).

International Dance DayIn 1982 the Dance Committee of ITI founded

International Dance Day to be celebrated every

year on the 29th April, the birthday of Jean-

Georges Noverre (1727-1810), creator of modern

ballet. The intention of the International Dance

Day Message is to celebrate dance, revel in the

universality of this art form, cross all political,

cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people

together with a common language - dance.

Every year a message from an outstanding

choreographer or dancer is circulated throughout

the world. The author of the message is selected

by the International Dance Committee of ITI

and the Executive Council of ITI. The message

is translated into numerous languages and

circulated globally.

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Message Authors of International Dance Day

1998 Kazuo OHNO, Japan

1997 Maurice BEJART, France

1996 Maya PLISSETSKAYA, Russia

1995 Murray LOUIS, USA

1994 Dai AILIAN, China and Trinidad

1993 Maguy MARIN, France

1992 Germaine ACOGNY, Benin and Senegal

1991 Hans VAN MANEN, The Netherlands

1990 Merce CUNNINGHAM, USA

1989 Doris LAINE, Finland

1988 Robin HOWARD, United Kingdom

1987 Dance Committee Board

1986 Chetna JALAN, India

1985 Robert JOFFREY, USA

1984 Yuri GRIGOROVITCH, Russia

1983 No message issued

1982 Henrik NEUBAUER, Slovenia

2018 Salia Sanou, Burkina Faso

Georgette Gebara, Lebanon

Willy TSAO, Hong Kong, China

Ohad NAHARIN, Israel

Marianela BOAN, Cuba

2017 Trisha BROWN, USA

2016 Lemi PONIFASIO, Samoa and New Zealand

2015 Israel GALVAN, Spain

2014 Mourad MERZOUKI, France

2013 LIN Hwai-min, Chinese Taipei

2012 Sidi Larbi CHERKAOUI, Belgium

2011 Anne Teresa DE KEERSMAEKER, Belgium

2010 Julio BOCCA, Argentina

2009 Akram KHAN, United Kingdom

2008 Gladys AGULHAS, South Africa

2007 Sasha WALTZ, Germany

2006 King Norodom SIHAMONI, Cambodia

2005 Miyako YOSHIDA, Japan

2004 Stephen PAGE, Australia

2003 Mats EK, Sweden

2002 Katherine DUNHAM, USA

2001 William FORSYTHE, USA

2000 Alicia ALONSO, Cuba; Jirí KYLIÁN, Czech Republic;

Cyrielle LESUEUR, France

1999 Mahmoud REDA, Egypt

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Dance, or sense of the future.

How to deliver this message directly to the community

of humans without having a thought for all these migrant

bodies, forced into exodus and exile around the world?

As a choreographer and dancer, having travelled all

continents to present my work and have enriching

experiences in contact with others, can I look away

from the chaos that shakes the world, and in particular,

the migratory peril? No. I look at it and see its darkness,

its brutality, but also its opportunities; the opportunities

that contemporary dance has allowed me to discover in

order to be part of an epoch.

The question of migration summons, beyond its

political connections, the question of the self-gaze

on the other. A look fed by imagination that drains a

biased, condescending, stereotyped idea from abroad,

that is to say, an intrusive body of the social fabric.

However, whether we like it or not, whether we

recognize it or not, we all share, whatever the colour

of our skin, whatever our origins, wherever we live, a

common base: humanity. It is this paradigm that guides

and nourishes my creative process.

If in my work as a choreographer the question of

boundaries, territories, cultures, and the evidence of

the humanities, is always present or even recurrent in

a proven or more diffuse way, it is invariably because I

maintain a curious relationship to time, to spaces, to

displacements, based upon sensitive and sometimes

fragile relations constituted, then undoubtedly tested,

in my double belonging to Africa and Europe.

With the show „Desire d‘horizon“, whose choreographic

vocabulary as dramaturgy came from my experiences

of working in dance workshops with refugees in camps

in Burkina Faso and Burundi, I tried to transcend the

images produced, tried to transcend the incredible

violence observed in these places, these non-places,

where each tries to live or at least tries to reinvent a

little of oneself.

Dancing for a living is the message that I come to

bring with the firm conviction that an artist must find

strength, drive and energy to get in the wake of life.

This experience of strangeness, where I felt in my flesh

the deep bleeding of fear, misery, unworthiness, gave

me a courage and a difficult force still to be defined

today. This interzone where nothing human, logical,

or ethical is taken into account anymore, this space

outside the common law, in the confines of nowhere,

where vacillation, absurdity, and incessant violence are

rife; when living there my fear became the maxim of

my courage, yes I admit it, this hitherto unknown state

gave me the will to reconquer, with dance, a little future

and a snatch of present, surely uncertain but starred

with hope.

Yes, I express it loudly, dance can invent and reinvent

itself, here, now, and elsewhere! Yes, the movement

sometimes has its flashes, its harmonies in unusual

places as in a refugee camp, a whole story that can,

gestures against gestures, body against body, spectres

against spectres start to dance. Dance to deceive

loneliness, waiting, pain, dance to give light to a look,

dance to ward off fear, dance and dance again.

This unique experience has shaped an unprecedented

approach to movement in my choreographic work, it

has revealed new perceptions to me, it has undoubtedly

guided me to the essentials of knowing that dance is a

major art, that it conceals a universal knowledge that

has survived all the time, it is a reflection of cultures

and traditions that are as rich and varied as the many

lines of union between peoples. It is a source of

meaning. For me, it is the art of life, of poetry and hope,

it is the courage and the first step in being able to „fight

the destiny, to surprise the disaster by the little fear

that it makes us sometimes to face the unjust power,

sometimes to insult the drunken victory, to hold on, to

stand up; this is the example that people need, and the

light that electrifies them“, a magnificent quote from

Victor Hugo, extracted from Les Misérables, that I

deliver to you in conclusion and in sharing.

Thank you.

Message International Dance Day 2018

by Salia SANOU

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Message Authors 2018 – Africa

Salia SANOU, Burkina Faso

Salia Sanou, born 1969 in Burkina Faso, attended

drama and African dance classes before joining

Mathilde Monnier‘s dance company in Montpelier

in 1993. Since then he has led projects in France

and Africa. He founded the company „Salia nï

Seydou“ with Seydou Boro in 1995. Winners of the

Second Choreographic Encounters of Africa and

the Indian Ocean, they receive the Découverte

RFI Danse prize in 1998.

From 2003 to 2008, Salia Sanou was an associate

artist at the National Scene of Saint-Brieuc, before

being in residence at the National Dance Centre

in Pantin, from 2009 to 2010.

Then, in 2011, he founded the „Mouvements

Perpétuels“ company in Montpelier. He created

Au-delà des frontières (2012) and Clameur des

arènes (2014) for the Montpelier Dance Festival

and Doubaley ou le miroir in 2013. In 2016,

he created Du Désir d‘horizons, following the

workshops of dance that he led for 3 years in

refugee camps in Burkina Faso and Burundi. In

2018, with the creation cycle entitled Multiple-s,

he invited the author Nancy Huston, the

choreographer Germaine Acogny and the

musician David Babin to join him on set for three

face-to-face performances.

With Seydou Boro, he continues to create and

direct the biennial Dialogues de Corpsin in

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and La Termitière,

a choreographic development centre opened in

2006.

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Message International Dance Day 2018

by Georgette GEBARA

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Georgette Gebara is a world-renowned dancer,

choreographer, writer, broadcaster and educator

from Lebanon. As a student, she showed early

promise when dancing, and landed many leading

roles in classical ballets. She used her experience

in education to set up the “École Libanaise de

Ballet”, a ballet focussed dance school, in Beirut,

1964.

Keeping with education, she has since gone

on to act as Professor of dance at the National

Institute of Fine Arts (Dramatic Arts Section) of

the Lebanese University (1966 to 1984) and has

lectured all over the world.

As a choreographer, Georgette has worked for

plays, musicals, TV and Film in Arabic, American,

French and Armenian productions. For television,

she choreographed and danced on a special

programme of recitations of Arabic Poems for

Jordanian TV, which was the first programme

of its kind when it broadcast in 1978. She has

since gone on to do further TV work as a jury

member for “Studio Al Fan”, the Number One

TV-programme for the discovery of new talents

in music, song and dance, in Lebanon, from 1974

to 1992.

All of this has helped cement Georgette Gebara

as a household name in the dance world. She is

seen as an innovator for dance in the Arab region

and is a key reason for the enduring popularity of

the art form in that part of the world. Examples of

her desire to raise the profile of dance in the Arab

world are numberless. For instance, she founded,

and went on to choreograph for, the “Soirees de

Ballets”, the first professional dance company

to be based in Lebanon, in 1966. Just two years

later, her desire to spread her inventive approach

across the Arab Region was realised when she

became a founder member of the International

Centre of Traditional Music and Dance, based

in Carthage (Tunisia), in 1968. She is also a co-

founder of the Syndicate of Professional Artists,

Lebanon, formed in 1993.

More recently she has turned her attention to

writing and dance journalism. She has authored

articles on Lebanese Theatre for German and

Japanese publications and was twice named

‘Dance Critic of the Year’ by the Daily Star. In

November 2017 she published her first book,

entitled, “Entre Deux Pas”.

Over the years she has been a stalwart for ITI,

seeking to use it as a platform to raise the profile of

Lebanese and pan-Arabic dance across the globe.

From 1980-2008 she served as a key member, and

later Vice-President, of the Lebanese Centre of ITI.

During this time, she also worked as the secretary

of the International Dance Committee of the ITI,

from 1996 to 2008, and served as a member of the

organization’s Executive Council from 1997-2008.

In 2011, her contributions to ITI, and to the wider

world of the performing arts, were recognised,

when she was made an Honorary Member of ITI.

Message Authors 2018 – Arab Countries

Georgette GEBARA, Lebanon

EAST, WEST: Dance dialogue

Amman. Sunday, 26 August 1979. King Hussein and

American-born Queen Nour enter the royal box of

the Palace of Culture. Ovation. Jordanian anthem,

American anthem.

Silence.

The curtain opens, to reveal royalty of another nature:

a petite woman standing very tall in her sequined dress

and long black gloves, an ancient-looking throne by her

side. She bows, smoothes herself onto the throne.

MARTHA GRAHAM

In a half whisper, she speaks about her company,

her ballets. When she comes to the body, the King

before her, a fine sportsman, listens with warmth and

understanding. Her words carry me to my own beliefs:

to me, our body is a temple. In it life begins; in it is the

soul; in it the heart, that muscle that pumps love; its

brain is the power of thought; good and evil struggle

within its depths. The body brings movement, essence

of life, to its most sublime form of expression: DANCE.

My attention returns to Martha. As though she had

lived all her life in our part of the world, she speaks of

the sands that come and go, covering up the traces of

invaders. “THE VOICE OF THE LAND DICTATES WHO

REMAINS” she declares.

Oh yes Martha! we have been here for perhaps more

than humanity remembers. The sands of our deserts,

the waves of our seas have given our women the

graceful and seductive sway of hips which has travelled

to the farthest confines of Spain. It is said a poet once

exclaimed: “Fa la haramouna Allah menkom” – “May

God not deprive us of you”, which, once the guttural

difficulties of the “h” was dropped became “falamenko”

to finally be “flamenco”. A true tale? It does not matter,

it may just be a beautiful lie! …. And are not poetry and

dance two magnificent lies? yet lies that reflect the

DEPTH of human feeling.

Whereas desert and sea gave us undulating movement,

high mountains and revolt against invaders gave birth

to vigorous male stamping of feet and jumps in rhythms

wild as tempest air. Sword dances and equestrian

choreography accompany them. Each region over this

vast Arab world defined its own style and colours.

The first expression of dance, however, was prayer, and

the “three religions of the Book”, as we call them, were

born on our shores. The movements and gestures of

prayer are thus considered a form of spiritual dance.

Their origins may travel back farther than we can trace,

but they are certainly the purest, oldest and most

mysterious expressions of the human body.

A small wink is due here to pharaonic dances, to fathom

the age of dance in our region. They were PAINTED in

angular style, but most certainly the actual movements

themselves must have been as fluent and stupendous

as the waters of the Nile.

With the advent of modern times and the arrival of

foreign residents, classical ballet and contemporary

dance studios opened, and the practice of dance

moved to more specialized levels. From simple rural

celebrations or occasional sophisticated urban social

entertainment, it rose to professionalism and entered

the theatre.

But, back to Jordan. Defying the war still raging in

Lebanon, I risked persuading 10 students to travel with

me to Amman to see the Martha Graham Company, but

more particularly for the privilege of seeking a master

class. Company dancer Peter Sparling conducted

it with enthusiasm, and the experience was great.

Applause, big smiles, hearty hugs, and of course, as the

head of the group, I said a few words to thank Peter. He

looked at us in utter surprise. “YOU are thanking ME?

It is I who should thank YOU. Here we came, I from the

U.S., you from Lebanon, from Jordan and elsewhere.

We sat on the floor, and suddenly we were all speaking

the same language”.

Indeed, whether we sit on the floor, hang on to a barre,

fly in the air, stamp our boots on some mountain peak,

whether we wave our hips lasciviously under a tent or in

a nightclub, our language binds us together! For dance

is not only an expression of feelings, a celebration,

or just entertainment. DANCE IS A STATEMENT. A

statement that says more eloquently than any spoken

language, that we are ONE.

19

Message International Dance Day 2018

by Willy TSAO

18

Willy Tsao is an influential figure in China’s

modern dance development as a choreographer,

educator, curator, manager and director. Born

and educated in Hong Kong, Tsao received his

modern dance training in the US and an MBA

degree from the University of Hong Kong. He

was named an Honorary Fellow by the Hong

Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2000 and

received an Honorary Doctorate in 2015.

As a contemporary dance pioneer in Mainland

China and Hong Kong, Tsao founded the first and

only professional contemporary dance company

CCDC in Hong Kong in 1979 and has held the role

of artistic director since 1989. In Mainland China,

Tsao was a teacher and advisor to the Modern

Dance Programme at the Guangdong Dance

School from 1987 to 1992 and was named artistic

director of China’s first professional modern dance

company, Guangdong Modern Dance Company,

when it was founded by the Guangdong

Provincial Government in 1992. He departed the

group in 1998 and was invited by the Guangdong

Cultural Bureau in 2004 to resume his position

until 2016. In Beijing, Tsao had served the Beijing

Modern Dance Company as artistic director from

1999 to 2005. In 2005, Tsao established China’s

first independent professional modern dance

company, BeijingDance/LDTX. In addition, Tsao

gives lectures and workshops frequently for

universities and dance groups in major Chinese

cities, including Beijing, Changsha, Daqing,

Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Guiyang, Hefei, Hohhot,

Kunming, Nanchang, Nanning, Shanghai, Taiyuan,

Urumqi, Wuhan and Xiamen.

Tsao’s contribution to dance has been widely

recognized. He has also received numerous

awards and honours including; Dancer of the

Year Award from the Hong Kong Artists’ Guild in

1988, Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award in

1990, Badge of Honor from HRH Queen Elizabeth

II in 1993, Louis Cartier Award of Excellence –

Outstanding Choreographer in 1998. In 1999,

he was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star by

the Hong Kong SAR Government. He received

Distinguished Achievement Award in the 2014

Hong Kong Dance Awards for his immense and

invaluable achievement and contribution to

Hong Kong dance.

Since 1980, Tsao has created more than 60

major works, including Bird Songs, Kunlun,

China Wind-China Fire, 365 Ways of Doing and

Undoing Orientalism, Wandering in the Cosmos,

One Table N Chairs, Sexing Three Millennia,

Dao: Extraodinaire, Conqueror, Warrior Lanling

and In Search of the Grand View Garden. His

choreography has been staged in Canada,

France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, the US as

well as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Taipei.

Message Authors 2018 – Asia Pacific

Willy TSAO, Hong Kong, China

Dear friends of the international dance community,

The world seems to be in constant dissidence and

troubles. We have witnessed, especially in recent

years, incessant conflicts between countries, races

and cultures. As a dance practitioner, I can’t help but

wonder if art may somehow become an antidote to

prevent or counteract some of the disorders that are

threatening world peace and harmony.

I have been promoting the art of dance in China since

late 1980s, trying to convince the general public that

dance, especially contemporary dance, is important

for a country’s development. I believe that the three

essential aspects that characterize contemporary

dance - individual expressions, innovative ideas and

study of human conditions, serve as the fundamental

building blocks of a value system upon which modern

China will continue to grow and flourish.

In the pursuit of excellence in contemporary dance,

we value individual expressions; therefore, we learn

to respect different opinions and diversity. We value

the search of innovative ideas; therefore, we accept

changes and are willing to adapt to new ways of

living. We value the need for understanding current

happenings and issues as a way to study human

existence; therefore, we become more tolerant and

understanding while we are face-to-face with each

other regardless of any differences.

China, similar to most of the countries in the Asia-

Pacific region, enjoys a rich cultural heritage. However,

the country had been sealed off from the rest of the

world for decades and has only opened up through

its reformation and open policy in 1978, exactly 40

years ago. Indeed, there is still a long way to go before

the general public in China can comprehend and

appreciate in greater depth the value of contemporary

dance. On the other hand, I am seeing the emergence

of a phenomenon which suggests that young people

in China are interested in the contemporary dance art

form and are using it as a medium of self -expression.

Hence, with a growing connection with international

communities and stronger mutual contemporary dance

exchanges, I am confident that China will accelerate

to become a significant force for advocating individual

viewpoints, championing innovative changes, and

fostering tolerance and understanding among nations

in this troubled world.

Thank you.

21

Message International Dance Day 2018

by Ohad NAHARIN

20

Ohad Naharin is a choreographer, the Artistic

Director of Batsheva Dance Company, and creator

of the GAGA movement language.

Born in 1952 in Mizra, Israel, he joined Batsheva

Dance Company in 1974 despite having little

training. During his first year, guest choreographer

Martha Graham invited him to join her own

company in New York, where Naharin later

made his choreographic debut at the Kazuko

Hirabayshi studio in 1980. For the next decade

he presented works in New York and abroad,

including pieces for Batsheva Dance Company,

the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and

Nederlands Dans Theater. Naharin worked closely

with his first wife, Mari Kajiwara, until she died

from cancer in 2001.

In 1990, Naharin was appointed Artistic Director

of Batsheva Dance Company, and in the same

year, he established the company’s junior

division, Batsheva – the Young Ensemble. He

has since created over thirty works for both

companies and set pieces on many others. He

has also collaborated with musicians including

The Tractor’s Revenge, Avi Balleli and Dan Makov,

Ivri Lider, and Grischa Lichtenberger. Under

the pseudonym Maxim Waratt, he composed,

edited, and mixed many of his own soundtracks.

Naharin’s work has been featured in several films,

including Tomer Heymann’s Out of Focus (2007)

and the Heymann Brothers’ Mr. Gaga (2015).

In addition to his stagework, Naharin also

developed GAGA, the innovative movement

research and daily training of Batsheva’s dancers

that has spread internationally among both

dancers and non-dancers.

A citizen of both Israel and the United States,

Naharin currently lives in Israel with his wife,

dancer and costume designer Eri Nakamura, and

their daughter, Noga.

Message Authors 2018 – Europe

Ohad NAHARIN, Israel

Dancing is about being in the moment. It’s about

listening to the scope of sensations and allowing that

listening to become the fuel of all feelings, forms, and

content. Yet, we should always remember where we

came from.

When asked what my work is about, I first answer

that it is about itself. About how all of its elements

meet to create its narrative. A dance narrative of

volume, delicacy, the use of explosive power. The

research of movement, organization and structure.

Laughing at ourselves, dynamics, overstatement

and understatement, the connection of pleasure and

effort, and the sublimation of each dancer’s madness,

passion, and fantasy into a clear form.

At its best, dance can be sublime, even if far from

perfect. We need to resist the conservative and

conventional thinking that has roots in much of dance

education and training, and let go of old ideas for new,

better ones. And we must always remember to dance

a little every day...

And we must always remember to dance a little every

day... and never in front of a mirror.

23

Message International Dance Day 2018

by Marianela BOAN

22

Marianela Boán is an internationally recognized

choreographer and one of the most important

artists of the Cuban and Latin American dance

vanguard. Her revolutionary style „Dance

Polluted“ radically mixes all the arts associated

with dance, producing an expressive and original

scenic result. As a choreographer, dancer and

teacher, Boán has worked in more than 40

countries presenting her works and giving

workshops in numerous venues and festivals in

Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. She has

created nearly 70 choreographic works for dance,

theatre, TV and film companies.

She has won important choreographic awards

as a member of Danza Contemporánea de Cuba

from 1973 to 1988 and as the founding director

of the companies DanzAbierta, Cuba, 1988-

2003, BoanDanz Action USA, 2005-2010 and the

Compañía Nacional de Danza Contemporánea

of the Dominican Republic, since 2010 until now.

The Encounter of Women of Latin America in the

Performing Arts, 2014, paid homage to her life

and professional work by awarding her the Glo

prize.

She obtained a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in

Dance at Temple University, Philadelphia, where

she served as a teacher. She has also been the

head of the Higher Institute of Arts Cuba (ISA)

and has contributed to the education of several

generations of Cuban and Latin American

dancers.

Between 2002 and 2010, she maintained an

intense work-rate in the USA for companies and

institutions such as Dance Theater Workshop,

American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival,

New York University, Joyce SoHo, La MaMA, etc.

Marianela Boán currently lives in Santo Domingo,

Dominican Republic, where she founded and

currently directs the National Company of

Contemporary Dance of the Ministry of Culture,

which has met with great success in Cuba,

Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain, Peru and USA.

Her most recent works are „Sed“ (2011), „Caribe

Deluxe“ (2013), “Propulsion” (2015) and “Defilló”

(2017).

Message Authors 2018 – The Americas

Marianela BOAN, Cuba

Your body begins before you and is the place of all the

rituals that belong to you.

When you listen to your body through dance, you

also hear the bodies and dances of seduction and

celebration which belong to your ancestors and your

species.

In your body you carry the dances that will save you.

The one who dances touches the other beyond the

skin; dance touches their weight and smell, it defeats

the tactile screens and it erases the borders between

bodies and nations.

I have lived on both sides of history. I have seen poverty

and wealth, landscapes and bodies fed and abused by

power. My work excavates, looking for the real bodies

among those officially on display.

Being a choreographer in Cuba and the Dominican

Republic, the magical islands where I live, surrounded

by the Caribbean Sea and people dancing before birth,

is an unmentionable privilege.

Dancing is the great antidote to the madness of

mankind.

To each displaced person, refugee and exile from

around the world, I say: you have a country that goes

with you that nothing and no one can take away; the

country of your body.

25

Dance Company: Danza Contemporánea de Cuba

Choreography: Julio Cesar Iglesias

Choreography assistant: Tomas Guilarte

Music: Hangedup / Arron Family / Nina Simone /

Fordom / Monoloc / Wardruna

Light design: Fernando Alonso

Costume design: Julio Cesar Iglesias

Interpreters: Arelys Hernández / Alejandro

Miñoso / Claudia H. Rodríguez / Dayron Romero

/ Emma Quiñones / Heriberto Meneses / José

A. Elías / Leyna González / Mario Varela / Idian

Rodríguez / Norge Cedeño / Maikel Pons /

Penélope Morejón / Stephanie Hardy / Thais

Suárez / Víctor Varela

Rituals, infinite paths, incessant searches in life,

exploring the social construction of the human

being and the deep meaning of spirituality. A

spirit that is built with sacrifice, with pleasure,

with full confidence in what is believed and what

is done. Never pain, only faith.

Performances

Coil

24

Performances

Twelve

TwelveDance Company: Acosta Danza

Concept and Direction: Jorge Crecis

Choreography Assistant: Fernando Balsera

Music: Vincenzo Lamagna

Costume Design: Eva Escribano

Lighting Design: Michael Mannion, Warren

Letton and Pedro Benítez

Twelve is a dance-sport piece, a universe

regulated by complex mathematical and graphic

permutations, a real risk that tests the physical

and mental resistance of 12 dancers who have to

do the impossible to achieve the impossible.

Twelve is a combination of logic, aesthetics and

emotion, a puzzle that plays with the concepts of

success and failure, risk and pragmatism and that

explores the limits of the human body. Twelve

has been an exclusive re-creation for Acosta

Danza from piece ‘36’ created in 2011 for the Edge

Company and presented in 2012 at the Royal

Opera House in London.

Dancers: Zeleidy Crespo, Yanelis Godoy, Laura Rodríguez,

Leticia Silva, Laura Treto, Carlos Luis Blanco, Yasser

Domínguez, Mario Sergio Elías, Julio León, Raúl

Reinoso, Javier Rojas y Alejandro Silva.

27

Dance Company: Folklorico Nacional de Cuba

Original script and choreography – Manolo Micler

A folkloric projection of chants, drum playing,

and dance extracted from the traditions of the

Dahomey peoples, which depicts the transition

to puberty, and in so doing evokes old rituals of

fertility.

Performances

DAHOMEÑÓ

26

Dance Company: Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba

Title: Latido VIII. Ella y el… Siempre

Choreographer: Lizt Alfonso

Music: Cesar Lopez

Duration: 5 minutes 38 seconds.

Synopsis: Time, as it exists in our dimension, marks

a pattern that is the thread - or umbilical cord -

between what is now and what is no longer.

However, we are always looking to the future,

despite the fact we will never hold certainty that

it will exist for any of us.

Out of the desire to get out from this jumble of

feelings and emotions, and scream that there is

‘no time to lose’ - because it is always the right

and precise moment to move forward - this

heartbeat is born.

Performances

Ella y él… siempre

29

Lv Dong Wu Xian is a Chinese word meaning “infinite

rhythm”.

A Company focuses on the development and

producing of film and TV projects, educating

talents for the film and TV industry, promoting the

cultural exchange between China and the world,

offering consultations on the culture industry and

the culture projects incubating. Beijing Lv Dong

Wu Xian Culture & Communication also has a

training centre at the Central Academy of Drama,

Beijing, offering training on the performing

arts for professionals, children and those who

will participate in the entrance examination of

performing arts academies in China.

Sponsor: Beijing Lv Dong Wu Xian

Culture & Communication Co

28

Dance Company: Ballet Nacional de Cuba

Choreography: Alicia Alonso (Artistic direction

and choreography), Marta García and María Elena

Llorente. An adaptation of the original version by

Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorski.

Music: Ludwig Minkus

Scenography: Frank Alvarez

Costumes: Salvador Fernandez

Cast: Kitri, the beautiful: Viengsay Valdes, Basilio,

the barber of the town: Patricio Reve, Espada: Ariel

Martinez, Mercedes, his lover: Ginett Moncho,

Bullfighters: Daniel Rittoles, Yankiel Vazquez, Luis

Fernandez, Juan Oquendo and Adrian Sanchez,

Majas: Monica Viqueiras, Wendy Castell, Jessica

Arechavaleta, Verena Garcia, Cynthia Villalonga

and Lorena Urgelles

Musical Accompaniment: Symphony Orchestra

of the Gran Teatro de La Habana «Alicia Alonso»

Direction: Giovanni Duarte

The Don Quixote ballet was released on

December 26, 1869 at the Bolshoi Theatre in

Moscow, inspired by a famous chapter of the

eponymous and well-known work of Miguel de

Cervantes. The Cuban version was presented for

first time on July 6, 1988 at the Gran Teatro de

la Habana. The first act of this ballet, represents

the scene in which the bullfighters arrive at the

plaza of a village in Castile; the Andalusian Espada

enters, accompanied by his lover Mercedes. The

dance of the young couple excites the whole

town. The third act includes the famous grand

pas de deux, in which Kitri (Quiteria) and Basilio,

the protagonists, dance on the day of their

wedding.

Performances

Don Quixote (Suite)

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